To wonder who can afford this? What do you spend on your holidays?

[Bridgeofpies]

I was flicking through a travel magazine and having the usual envy of the people enjoying sun drenched beaches, bustling exotic markets and artistic sunsets etc. So I had a look through at all the places to stay.

Almost all the hotels and accommodation (or a large proportion) were from £400 per night for a double room! Some were up to £700. It got me wondering - who actually stays in these hotels? They look amazing and I can imagine doing it for a one- off special occasion like a big anniversary or birthday but are there people who spend this on their “normal” holidays?

We are definitely well-off by most standards but wouldn’t consider this for a holiday! (Especially with 2 kids, it would be insanely expensive). Our last big blow out holiday was around £3500 but that was 2 weeks, all-inclusive, with flights and for all 4 of us!

So, just got me wondering, is it just billionaires and business travellers on expenses who stay in these places?

Thing is with holidays, people pay vastly different prices for them. The structures can be complex and there are deals. Including last minute and also promotions. Some people will quite literally pay double what others have paid or more. I was at a hotel in Majorca on a 1p per person per night all inclusive upgrade. Ie we got all food for 1p having paid accommodation. Then when we got to accommodation we were given quite a posh room, more than we believed we’d paid for. Other people were Angry at the cost of food. Justifiably. We were Just lucky with a short term promotion.

We usually spend 10k on our "big" holiday. Then 3 or 4 on a smaller holiday.
The "big" holiday is half board and if we ate in the restaurants in the hotel off of this we'd probably spend nearly 3k on food alone so paying the extra £1000 to go half board is essentially saving us money.

But this will all change when DS is in school as we'd have to go on holidays in school time and DH works in an industry where he can't take much time off during school holidays so we'd only be able to go away for a week at a time so we'd spend less.

I'm amazed at the number of people paying huge amounts for holidays without seeming to upgrade to business or first-class for their familiar comforts. ( I'm now elderly and disabled, so don't do holidays any more).

NC for this - 2 ads + 2 dc.
Feb Half Term Skiing : £5k - £6k chalet board near the lift.
Short haul summer holiday (Italy) : £2k
Easter Uk break (Devon) : £1k
Annual budget of £8k - £9k. Household income of £200k+ with negligible mortgage. Skiing is our extravagance - nothing frugal about that! Skiing is addictive though, ‘‘twas a slippery slope! Looked very briefly at skiing in the States/Canada but no way am I willing to pay $100 a day pp for a ski pass!

Last year we spend about 5k I think this year a bit less

Holidays are very important to our family. We all work really hard and it’s a time to totally relax together.£15,000 is not unusual for 4 for a fortnight. I appreciate we are lucky

Aroundtheworld - did you really mean 130k????

I can’t believe what people are paying for hildays. They can’t be shopping around. Last week we did a week in a suite in a 5 hotel for £3500 in August, half board and a week in a stunning hotel in NYC for 5 of us for £2500. This year we’re doing a week in Mallorca in August for £3000 for 5 of us 5 and the same for a week skiing at Easter and that includes lessons / passes etc. Shop around and you cut literally thousands. We did 2 weeks in Florida including passes, flights, cars and villas with change from £5k

Not everyone wants or needs to 'shop around.' People earning huge wages don't need to bargain hunt. They see what they want and book it.

22k to go to Portugal?

Well as someone who will soon be in the school system I am shoocked by some of the prices I’ve seen for summer holidays, both in Europe & the UK. Before having kids I only ever holidayed in term time, what a difference! I’m lucky that my parents have a home in the South of France so we have that option. The most expensive holiday I’ve been on was maybe 10-15k but I shopped around & was upgraded so easily shaved 5k+ off the bill. That did include French Polynesia though so worth it. I think 12-15k on a income of 100k is a lot but obvs it depends on mortgage & age of children.

blue25 perhaps. If I won the Euro millions then I probably wouldn’t care but I think I’m tight. 😁

£22,000 on a holiday to Portugal is a real head-scratcher. Maybe if you lived in America a luxury holiday to Portugal might sound exotic and appealing but for a British person to spend so much on such an accessible country? Seems madness. You could have a pretty lux-fuckin'-urious holiday there for half that amount.

Clearly where you live & the stage in your life your at makes a massive difference to holiday budget. Apart from honeymoons my friendship group and us have modest holidays. Our circle includes gps, barristers, surgeons, accountants & bankers but if your paying 2k in childcare or private school plus the mortgage on a 700k+ property holidays have to give.

I'm amazed at the number of people paying huge amounts for holidays without seeming to upgrade to business or first-class for their familiar comforts

I only fly first class now and factor that in to my holidays. However, you can get real bargains with flights by waiting for deals and being flexible with dates and or saving air miles on everything.

I wont travel economy for flights over 3 hours and fly business either using hard cash or if I have enough miles use to upgrade (or have been upgraded by the airline). But the way FF are now treated by some airlines, it can be almost impossible to either use your miles or they are worthless.

It depends on the needs of everyone tho. Each person in our family of 5 has things which we want to make it a holiday. I wont shop and cook anymore, we cant eat out in restaurants because ds1 has an extremely restricted diet and the baby is at difficult age where restaurants are hard work. DS2 doesn't like swimming or skiing. No one likes it really hot. No one likes it cold. No one sleeps well so we need to only travel at certain times and have 3 bedrooms otherwise they keep each other awake....The list goes on and on.

If it were just me then it would be different but we have spent years trying to go on what i would consider a normal holiday and we all have a miserable time and come back exhausted after a week for £2k or have an amazing time for £7k. We are hoping when the kids get older that it will get easier and we can just book a hotel somewhere and everyone will get on with it.

This year it'll be; One week ski holiday is £6.5k. Five days visiting friends and staying at a premier inn/Center Parcs is £1k. A week at Eurocamp is £1300. Doing a stay at home days out holiday/or local caravan place for a week approx £500-1000. A few days away at October half term £500-1000.

The only one of these which will be a holiday in the relaxing/restful way for me is the skiing one. The rest come under the category of 'same shit more awkward location'.

Next year we may try a Mark Warner type thing in the summer as ds1 kids need constant activities.

To the people saying those that pay lots aren't shopping around for a good deal. It depends how much you value your time. Whilst I will spend a bit of time looking at different prices, my time is more precious than needing to save money so for me getting a luxious break is more of a priority than saving some cash.

Mumsnet is the worst place to ask as most posters seem to be hugely rich!

I would consider us normal. We are spending about 1800k all in for a week in menorca and another 500 for camping in England.

We went to the South of France last year with s stop oner in Paris, flights,sleeper train, car hire and accommodation, valet airport parking and travel insurance was £1150 for the 5 of us.
That was the most expensive holiday we have been on!!!!

what downstairs said
I now realise why so many mumsnetters have the attitudes/'must have' requirements for their lifestyle that they exhibit on here. The average household income in the UK is circa £30k - so not a lot for expensive holidays.

For balance (as a supposedly rich over 65) I have an annual income of £12000 and spend about £500 on my holiday each year.
We are not all on high incomes and live in the South East

Totally agree it's all relative. Income V outgoings.

I tend to spend £1200-1400 on an AI for a week in summer for ds and I or £100-1100 for HB.

This year I've spent £600 on CP weekend which is SC.

So half the price and I know CP is expensive but it's what we like and I don't have the money for a summer trip. I'd rather spend that on CP short break than a week in a caravan.

We'll spend around 10k this year on holidays. We have around a week abroad on a sun holiday in May and October and then a 'biggie' in August. This year we're touring northern Norway and the arctic circle. We then have a touring caravan that we spend our weekends in. The vast majority of our disposable income goes on travel and holidays.

I wonder what a 700 quid hotel room looks like!

We’re in the top 1% of uk earners, but like a poster mentioned above, schools fees and mortgage mean holidays are cheap. Frankly the kids just adore us being together and have loved holidays in eurocamps so far. We also ski for a week for under £3k incl flights. Dh is good at shopping around

We are lucky enough to have a friend whose parents live in France, Carcassone area. Under rather sad curcumstances it is empty now, but she encourages us to visit whenever we like because her parents liked us a lot and we are very respectful of their stuff. And we can take the dog It's a four-hour drive from where we live so we spend money on petrol and tolls, then just food and entry tickets.

We are an outdoorsy family and like hills, castles, cycling and swimming in rivers which we can do there in abundance.

That's the only holiday we do. We took ds down the coast for his birthday last year which was about €60 a night for an apartment on the seafront. I would rather pay minimum on accommodation and spend my money on excellent local food including the odd Michelin restaurant.

We don't earn much at all, 30k a year between us. We have cheap tastes, know what to prioritise, and luckily live on a Spanish beach. We'd love to start camping but the cost of buying the stuff would be the cost of an entire holiday